|
Under the studio lights,
Kenny Neal's golden harmonica holder shimmers almost as much
as the diamond cross hanging around his neck. But neither
attracts the audience's attention like his glistening white
smile. Short dreadlocks peek out from under what he calls
his "jazz hat," one that is wicker and short-brimmed, with
three feathers in its black bandanna.
Neal looks toward tonight's
guest, Oakland blues and rhythm vocalist E.C. Scott, and sings,
"Put on your red dress because we're going out tonight." Scott
responds, "My red dress in the cleaners, but my shift will
steal the show," adding, "and it's not the back that's cut
too low." The camera pans across the cheering audience before
Neal and Scott start discussing their first meeting.
Louisiana bluesman
Kenny Neal is bringing the soul of blues to the Midpeninsula
through public access TV with "Neal's Place," the program
he produces through the Media Center in Palo Alto.
Neal jams and reminisces
with local and international blues and gospel musicians during
30 minutes of unscripted conversations and improvisational
musical performances. He has met the majority of his guests
while touring the world with his guitar, harp, six-piece band
and soothingly husky voice that sounds like it has a story
to tell. In fact, many blues artists he knows have called
him asking to be on the show.
Neal also invites musicians
whom he has scouted out at Bay Area blues festivals and clubs.
He named the show after
the Neal's Place "home restaurant" that his father and greatest
musical influence, Raful Neal, established in Baton Rouge.
Musicians, tourists and locals alike frequented it to enjoy
good music, good company and Neal's mother's soul food. She
knows about her son's public access show, but doesn't know
it is called "Neal's Place."
"I'm going to surprise
her," Neal said.
The restaurant closed
in 2002 after Raful became ill and it became too difficult
to maintain. He passed away in the fall of 2004. But Neal
is determined to perpetuate the establishment's feeling and
philosophy with his Palo Alto TV show.
Neal moved to Palo
Alto from his hometown of Baton Rouge three years ago to be
with his now-wife of two years, Josie.
Recalling this, Neal
laughed and said, "It had to be good to get me out of New
Orleans," which is his favorite place to play the blues.
Here in Palo Alto,
Neal recently saw a television advertisement for the Media
Center's programs, and learned that anyone who lives or works
in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton or Stanford
can produce a public access TV show. He "jumped on it right
away," he said. The program first aired on May 27.
"Neal's Place" is just
one of many projects Neal has launched during his music career.
He has released 16 CDs, starred as the lead in Zora Neal Hurston
and Langston Hughes' off-Broadway musical "Mule Bone," toured
with his 10 younger siblings and completed a memoir, "I Remember
When," which is scheduled to be released later this year.
Neal will also begin a tour -- not his first -- of the U.S.,
Australia, Russia, France and Germany in 2008 after his latest
CD is released.
"I don't remember when
I started to play," Neal said. But "the older I got," he said,
"I noticed that the blues players are all leaving us, so I
decided to dedicate myself to blues."
Still, Media Center
program director Jesse Norfleet said that "Neal's Place" is
anything but self-promotional. It is "not so much selling
the musicians as it is selling the music."
Neal wanted to do this
show "to pass (blues) on to younger generations who don't
know about blues." He said he is interviewing "the last of
the last blues musicians," some of whom have included Jimmy
McCrakin, Ronnie Stewart, Frankie Lee, Taylor P. Collins and
Fillmore Slim.
The show so far has
11 episodes, six of which have aired. Neal wants the show
to feel as casual and relaxed as the blues music the audience
is hearing. "A script interferes with the vibes," he said.
Usually guests ask,
"What we gonna do tonight?" Neal said. Their host jokingly
says something like "I don't know."
"But I do know," said
Neal, who believes that musicians perform best when they are
relaxed. He said he prefers "talking" to "interviewing" and
performs many songs with his guests "on the spot."
The home-comfort vibes
of "Neal's Place" are catching on. According to the Media
Center, the program has attracted 3,000 viewers -- or 10 percent
of those who receive channel 27 -- to tune in to each episode.
Norfleet said that
the show has also been successful both in the consistency
of the studio audience and of the "Neal's Place" crew. The
show usually has 15 to 20 studio audience members and many
of them have come to multiple tapings.
Palo Alto resident
Beverly Wade first came to a taping upon a friend's invitation
and now says, "I want to go every week until he goes on tour."
She and her husband, Neale, enjoy the show because Neal "seems
to be very relaxed and authentic," Neale said.
According to Norfleet,
it is rare for a public access producer to retain his or her
original crew members as Neal has. Norfleet himself does not
have to stay for the tapings, but he does, because "I like
Kenny and I love the music. I know that's why the crew shows
up."
Neal wants to share
the blues with the world, but he still keeps his music in
the family and his family in the music. Around the holidays,
"we get three generations of Neals together to jam," he said.
When he and his relatives
tour together as "The Neal Family," his mother is the manager.
And even when Neal tours separately, he still brings six band
members who are also his brothers. His wife is also the co-producer
of his TV show.
"Neal's Place" is just
the first part of Neal's series of efforts to strengthen the
blues community in the Bay Area. In the future, he said, he
wants to "invite everyone who has been on the show to a festival."
He also plans to take
"Neal's Place" to public access TV stations around the Bay
Area, and to do blues programs in schools. Kids in those programs,
he added, could also later perform on "Neal's Place."
Back on the television
set, the cameras have stopped rolling by 11 p.m., but the
musical duet continues. The audience and the crew stand up
and dance like they've just finished full plates of soul food.
Tonight the Media Center is Palo Alto's piece of Baton Rouge.
What: "Neal's
Place," a 30-minute TV show featuring local and international
blues and gospel musicians with host Kenny Neal
When: Sundays
at 8:30 p.m., Mondays at 12:30 p.m., Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m.
and Thursdays at 9 p.m. on local cable channel 27.
Info:Go to www.communitymediacenter.net
. The program can also be watched online there.
|
